Phasmophobia (video game)

Phasmophobia is an indie survival horror game developed and published by Kinetic Games. The game became available in early access through Steam for Microsoft Windows in September 2020, along with virtual reality support. The game received a large influx of popularity the following month due to many well-known Twitch streamers and YouTubers playing it, mainly for the Halloween season.[2] As of October 15, 2020, the game was the sixth-most popular game on Twitch.[3] It was the best selling game on Steam globally for several weeks in October to November 2020.[4]

Phasmophobia
Developer(s)Kinetic Games
Publisher(s)Kinetic Games
EngineUnity
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows
ReleaseTBA[lower-alpha 1]
Genre(s)Survival horror
Mode(s)Multiplayer

Gameplay

The player takes control of one member from a group of up to four players, in the roles of urban exploring ghost hunters, who are contracted to deal with ghosts inhabiting different abandoned facilities such as homes, schools, prisons and hospitals.[5][2][6] The game features 12 different varieties of ghost, each of which behave differently. The ghost types are as follows: spirit, wraith, phantom, poltergeist, banshee, jinn, mare, revenant, shade, demon, yurei, and oni. In order to find out which type of ghost they have encountered, the players must collect evidence on the ghost.[7][8] The end goal of the game is not to defeat the ghosts, but to collect enough information on them, while at the end of each mission the players get paid.[9][10] Players communicate through voice chat, which the ghost itself hears and reacts to.[11][12] The players can use different equipment to help their mission, such as UV flashlights, thermometers, EMF readers, CCTV cameras, crucifixes and Ouija boards.[13] These tools can be used for different means, such as communication, investigation, protection and clue gathering.[14]

Development and release

Release

The game was first seen on March 6, 2020 when its Steam page became live. An announcement trailer was then dropped three months later, announcing additional VR support and a release date for the early access build. On September 18, 2020, the game was released in early access for $14.[15] After the release, the game received two major updates regarding bug fixes in the following week.[16] Dknighter, the founder and sole member of Kinetic Games, has stated he hopes to release the full game somewhere in 2021. However, until that happens, he plans to keep the game's price the same. One of the developer goals for the game is to support Oculus Quest for the game, along with other game ideas such as playable ghosts.[17] During the course of game development after the early access release, one of the main goals for the updates was to improve the ghosts' AI, making them smarter and less predictable, and consequently harder for players to deal with.[18] According to Kinetic Games, there are no current plans on bringing the game to PlayStation 4.[19]

Popularity

Although first releasing around mid-September, the game began to pick up steam around the beginning of October when it was being played by many notable Twitch streamers and YouTubers such as SwagDracula, xQc, Jacksepticeye, Sodapoppin and Markiplier.[20][21] This was likely due to the game becoming early access around the beginning of the Halloween season, as well as being similar in popularity to its inspiration P.T.[22] It could also be due to the start of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic causing many people to stay at home.[23] With the influx of players due to the large amount of popular streamers playing the game, hackers became widespread during the later weeks of the game's release, mostly by trying to jumpscare players or spawn an infinite amount of items.[24] One of the more concerning examples of hacking were stream snipers, who changed their player models to a more NSFW one, likely causing said streamers to receive warnings and bans for inappropriate content.[25][26] The devs then began working on updates to solve the problem.[27]

On Twitch, the game grew exponentially and even reached the top 5 most viewed game in mid October, overtaking games such Among Us, Fortnite Battle Royale, FIFA 21, and Genshin Impact.[28][29] According to online player tracker GitHyp, the game hit a peak of over 86,000 active players around October 10.[30][31] The game became a Steam top-seller, and by the end of October 18, 2020, was the best selling game of that week, even beating out Fall Guys and pre-orders for Cyberpunk 2077.[32][33] The game is currently the highest selling game on Steam for two weeks in a row.[34]

Reception

Phasmophobia has received positive reviews from critics. Rich Stanton of PC Gamer called it "the best ghost game ever made", as well as declaring that it was "unlike anything else I've played", and that it "comes up with shit that'll turn you white".[9] Cass Marshall, writing in Polygon, also gave a positive review, describing it as "a nice, cozy kind of horror", and that "once [it] gets rolling, it is brilliant", while also finding that the game had numerous bugs.[2] Jeuxvideo.com described the game as being quite original and imaginative, on top of being creepy. They felt that the maps in the game were well thought out and that the level of progression was well paced. Whilst the review criticised the game for its animations and certain redundancies, they felt that they would likely be smoothed out with constant updates before the game's release.[35] A review by CBR described the game as "the perfect game for the Halloween season", praising it for its unique jumpscares, as well as for its sound design.[23] The game has been compared to many other horror games of a similar nature, such as Friday the 13th: The Game and Dead by Daylight.[36]

Awards
Award Date of ceremony Category Result Ref.
The Game Awards 2020 December 10, 2020 Best Debut Game Won [37]
Steam Awards 2020 January 3, 2021 VR Game of the Year Nominated [38]

Notes
  1. Available in early access since 18 September 2020.[1]

References
  1. Austin, Michael (November 18, 2020). "Who Phasmophobia's Ghosts Were Before They Died". ScreenRant. Retrieved November 21, 2020.
  2. Marshall, Cass (October 14, 2020). "A janky ghost game is blowing up on Twitch". Polygon. Retrieved October 15, 2020.
  3. Mercante, Alyssa (October 15, 2020). "Ghost game Phasmophobia is spreading scares all over Steam and Twitch". GamesRadar. Retrieved October 15, 2020.
  4. Vaz, Christian (November 9, 2020). "Phasmophobia continues to dominate Steam's top sellers list". PCGamesN. Retrieved December 18, 2020.
  5. Knoop, Joseph (November 19, 2020). "Phasmophobia Dev Shows Off Upcoming Prison Level". IGN Nordic. Retrieved November 25, 2020.
  6. Hawkins, Josh (October 23, 2020). "Can you play Phasmophobia with two players?". Shacknews. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
  7. Le Conte, Gemma (October 13, 2020). "Phasmophobia: All Ghost Types And Evidence Explained". Gfinity. Retrieved October 15, 2020.
  8. Lees, Gina (October 13, 2020). "Phasmophobia ghost types – all ghosts in the game". PCGamesN. Retrieved October 16, 2020.
  9. Stanton, Rich (October 13, 2020). "Phasmophobia is the best ghost game ever made". PC Gamer. Retrieved October 15, 2020.
  10. Izaak (October 14, 2020). "Phasmophobia, a new co-op ghost hunting game, becomes an October hit". Sportskeeda. Retrieved October 20, 2020.
  11. Morton, Lauren (October 7, 2020). "Phasmophobia has certainly possessed a lot of players". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved October 15, 2020.
  12. Miller, Chris (October 7, 2020). "Phasmophobia Is Taking Horror To New Levels With Party-Play And Voice Recognition". Happy Gamer. Retrieved October 15, 2020.
  13. Morton, Lauren (October 23, 2020). "Here are some Ouija board questions you can ask in Phasmophobia". PC Gamer. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
  14. Morton, Lauren (October 16, 2020). "What Spirit Box phrases and questions to use in Phasmophobia". PC Gamer. Retrieved October 16, 2020.
  15. Ridley, Jacob (October 8, 2020). "Phasmophobia, a terrifying online co-op ghost hunting game, is Twitch's latest surprise hit". PC Gamer. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
  16. "Phasmophobia News Hub". Steam. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
  17. Jagneaux, David (October 16, 2020). "Phasmophobia Dev Lists Oculus Quest As A Future 'Development Goal' Platform". Upload VR. Retrieved October 16, 2020.
  18. Jones, Rebecca (October 20, 2020). "Phasmophobia updates will make ghosts smarter and less predictable". PC Gamer. Retrieved October 21, 2020.
  19. Sant, Sam (October 1, 2020). "Are there Phasmophobia PSVR and Oculus Quest release dates?". Game Revolution. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
  20. Biswas, Souhardya (October 9, 2020). "PewDiePie Returns to Horror Games with Phasmophobia". Essentially Sports. Retrieved October 16, 2020.
  21. "What deserves to be the next streaming phenomenon like Among Us or Phasmophobia?". PC Gamer. October 23, 2020. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
  22. Grayson, Nathan (October 15, 2020). "Twitch's Latest Horror Sensation, Phasmophobia, Has Streamers Screaming (At Each Other)". Kotaku. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
  23. Creswell, Jacob (October 20, 2020). "Phasmophobia Is the BEST Indie Horror Game to Play This Halloween". CBR. Retrieved October 21, 2020.
  24. Sharma, Aakrit (October 20, 2020). "Phasmophobia Is Scarier than Ever But Not Because of the Horror". Essentially Sports. Retrieved October 21, 2020.
  25. Byrd, Matthew (October 20, 2020). "Phasmophobia Hackers Are Using Jump Scares to Haunt Streamers". Den of Geek. Retrieved October 21, 2020.
  26. Williams, Hayley (October 19, 2020). "Phasmophobia Hackers Are Terrorizing Streamers With Jump Scares". GameSpot. Retrieved October 21, 2020.
  27. Oloman, Jordan (October 20, 2020). "Phasmophobia Devs Working on Fix for Hackers Spawning in Even More Jump Scares". IGN. Retrieved October 21, 2020.
  28. Skrebels, Joe (October 9, 2020). "Phasmophobia Is a New Steam and Twitch Sensation". IGN. Retrieved October 16, 2020.
  29. Garst, Aron (October 14, 2020). "Phasmophobia Is Blowing Up On Steam And Twitch". GameSpot. Retrieved October 16, 2020.
  30. "Phasmophobia Player Count". GitHyp. Retrieved October 16, 2020.
  31. Sledge, Ben (October 12, 2020). "Phasmophobia hit Steam's top five most-played games this weekend". PCGamesN. Retrieved October 16, 2020.
  32. Brown, Fraser (October 12, 2020). "Indie ghost hunter Phasmophobia is a Steam top seller". PC Gamer. Retrieved October 16, 2020.
  33. Shwetang, Parthsarthy (October 19, 2020). "Phasmophobia Jumps a Spot on Steam Charts to Reach an All-Time High". Essentially Sports. Retrieved October 21, 2020.
  34. McGlynn, Anthony (October 26, 2020). "Phasmophobia is out-selling Baldur's Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077, and The Outer Worlds on Steam". PCGamesN. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
  35. "Test : Phasmophobia : une chasse aux fantômes en coop aussi originale que flippante" [Test: Phasmophobia: a co-op ghost hunt as original as it is scary]. Jeux Video (in French). October 16, 2020. Retrieved October 20, 2020.
  36. "Games like Phasmophobia: the best ghost games". PCGamesN. October 12, 2020. Retrieved October 20, 2020.
  37. Parthsarthy, Shwetang (November 19, 2020). "The Game Awards: Ghost of Tsushima, Animal Crossing, TLOU 2 and More Nominated for GOTY". Essentially Sports. Archived from the original on November 19, 2020. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
  38. Izaak (December 20, 2020). "Steam Awards 2020 nominees revealed". Sportskeeda. Archived from the original on December 22, 2020. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
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